"F*&$ that business"

Lorne Lanning is not a big fan of AAA development and major publishers. At all. The foul-mouthed creator of Oddworld has explained why upcoming revamp New & Tasty was developed independently, using Battlefield 4's launch as example of bad business without mincing any words whatsoever.

"F*ck that business, "Lanning told VG247 as part of a wider interview, describing the much-maligned state of triple-A development. "I don’t want to play with that business, because it was a losing business. I’d rather not make games than go fucking be a slave for public companies who care more about their shareholders than they do about their customers.”

So, reading between the lines, it appears that Lanning isn't particularly impressed by AAA publishers. It's subtle, but the subtext is definitely there (typed Jon facetiously). The veteran developer went on to discuss Battlefield 4 as an example of putting shareholders before gamers (though ironically, the biggest class action lawsuits were launched by shareholders themselves).

“Why did Battlefield 4 ship? You know that team was crying. You know that team knew that game wasn’t ready to go," Lanning continued.

“You know that team f*cking spent a lot of sleepless nights building that sh*t out to look as good and play as good, when it was able to be experienced, being played as they were intending it to be played. Someone made a decision that the shareholders are more important than the customer. And we see a lot of that. How do you blow that? How do you take that fucking jewel and ship it with dirt all over it?”

How indeed. Though many players reported few problems, many others found Battlefield 4 to be borderline-unplayable or merely intensely annoying; a crying shame since the game itself is fantastic. Thankfully, as far as I can tell, things have been running smoothly of late - and EA are out of the running for this year's 'Worst Company In America' award from the Consumerist.

Having worked with both EA and Microsoft in the past, Lanning is definitely no stranger to publisher pressure, and he's one of many company men who decided to embrace the new opportunities (and intense challenges) of indie development. Here's hoping that Oddworld: New & Tasty turns out to be sensational, mind...